Minor League Ball in Queens: So Far, Everything but Crowds

Just before 7 p.m. Friday, George Perez, right-handed pitcher for the Queens Kings, a minor-league baseball team playing in what was, until recently, an exclusively major-league town, strolled into the team's ballpark looking a little forlorn.

He was itching to play, but by now he had to wonder: how many fans would be watching?

''The attendance has been kind of poor,'' Mr. Perez said before heading for the dugout. ''But we're new and we didn't know what to expect. We came ready to play, and whatever happens, happens.''

As it turned out, Friday night's game, a 9-4 win over the Pittsfield Mets, drew a spirited crowd of 1,390, a respectable turnout for a first-year team with a record of 38-26 that has struggled to attract fans.

Spectators were clustered in groups across the team's temporary 3,500-seat stadium, on the campus of St. John's University in a residential section of Jamaica, Queens. Still, there were rows of empty stands, and the parking lot was less than half full.

''You wish there was a better environment fan-wise,'' said Frank Insalco, a city police officer who lives in Queens and attended his first minor-league game Friday with his son and daughter. ''But I make my own fun, and at this level, it's pure baseball. You don't need that Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium spectacle. You're here to watch baseball.''

Attendance, as low as 600 fans on some nights, has hovered at an average of 930, ranking the team last in attendance among the 14 Class A clubs in the New York-Penn League, according to the latest figures from the Minor League Baseball Association.

(The Staten Island Yankees, a club in the same league as the Kings that started its first season last year, has drawn more fans; crowds have averaged 2,800 so far this season.)

The sparse attendance in Queens came on the same week that the city broke ground on a 6,500-seat ballpark in Coney Island for a minor-league Mets franchise that next season will replace the Queens Kings, now an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. The Pittsfield Mets franchise will move to Brooklyn, and the Queens Kings will no longer exist.

The Coney Island stadium is expected to cost the city $39 million and is fiercely opposed by the Brooklyn borough president, but Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has defended it and a $71 million minor-league ballpark under construction on Staten Island, saying they will help the economy of the two boroughs.

City officials and members of the Queens Kings insist that the low turnout at St. John's is not an indication of the city's appetite for minor-league baseball. At the Coney Island groundbreaking, Mr. Giuliani said that once the Mets farm team had a home in the city, rivalry between it and the Staten Island Yankees would ''fuel attendance.''

''The possibility of watching future Mets stars will appeal to the people of the city of New York,'' said Steve Cohen, general manager of the Kings.

The Kings' season began with a series of problems, the biggest of them involving finding a field. At first, the city planned to build a temporary ballpark in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, but a lawsuit and political opposition thwarted that idea. The city then turned to St. John's, but residents and civic groups in the neighborhood also sued to block the stadium.

The Queens lawsuit is still pending, but the case is probably moot with plans for the Coney Island stadium well under way. And with attendance lower than expected, residents' worst fears -- traffic and noise overrunning the quiet nearby neighborhood of Jamaica Estates -- were not realized. The lights and loudspeaker from the stadium have annoyed residents, but life around the stadium on game nights has been a lot quieter than people expected, several residents said.

''Thankfully, for whatever reason, the team hasn't drawn well,'' said Barry Weinberg, a dentist who lives near the stadium and is chairman of the Jamaica Estates Association.

He added, ''What could have happened could have been a complete disaster.''

Correction: September 2, 2000, Saturday An article on Sunday about low attendance at minor league baseball games in Queens and an article on Aug. 23 about opposition to a Coney Island ballpark referred imprecisely to the cost of a minor league stadium under construction on Staten Island. According to the city's budget for the project, the construction of the stadium, the land purchase and the architectural, engineering and management fees are expected to add up to $53.2 million. Other features, including an esplanade and other site enhancements, put the combined cost for the project above $71 million; that is not the cost for the stadium itself.